Post navigation

The Doctor’s Companion Ep. 177 – Counting Lives

Our 50th Anniversary countdown continues as Scott and Matt discuss Terrance Dicks, pseudonyms, and the Fourth Doctor with the Tom Baker 4-part serial “The Brain of Morbius”. The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive on the planet Karn where a mad scientist named Solon plans to use spare body parts to resurrect the disembodied brain of the evil Time Lord Morbius and believes the Doctor’s is the perfect size. Can the Doctor stop Solon from resurrecting Morbius? Who are the mysterious Sisterhood of Karn? What is the bizarre, meta theory about the Doctor’s regeneration limit that was founded in this story? Find out in the latest episode of The Doctor’s Companion! And remember, BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!

5 thoughts on “The Doctor’s Companion Ep. 177 – Counting Lives”

Stupid but perhaps interesting trivia factoid: The hunchbacked assistant in James Whale’s Frankenstein was actually named Fritz (and was played by Dwight Frye [of Dracula fame {“Rats! Hundreds of them! Millions of them!”}]). In Whale’s sequel The Bride of Frankenstein, the assistant (again played by Frye) was named Karl. It wasn’t until The Son of Frankenstein that we have Igor appear for the first time, and he was played by Bela Lugosi, in an uncanny performance. Lugosi appeared as Igor one additional time in the Ghost of Frankenstein. Igor was, if I recall correctly, the son of Fritz.

Yeah. That’s actually one of the reasons Max Landis wrote a new version of Frankenstein recently for a film to be directed by Paul (Sherlock) McGuigan. It will be reinterpreting the story based on the common iconography associated with the material. So it’ll have a lot of the novel stuff along with the Universal stuff (including Igor) and mix it all up into a sort of “ultimate pop culture” rendition of the story. Which I think is a really cool reason to do a remake. Certainly the best reason I can think of.